A team from the Chennai city police on Saturday arrived in Madurai to question a vlogger Maridhas, who has been accused by the News18 television group of fraudulently using an e-mail to spread fake news and harm the reputation of the news channel’s senior editors. The team seized a laptop allegedly belonging to him.
The enquiry that began in the afternoon continued past 8 p.m.
The Madurai city police had deployed personnel outside his residence, as a precautionary measure, as some advocates had assembled there.
A police officer said that his laptop was seized in the presence of revenue officials. The complaint against Mr. Maridhas is that he posted a video on his YouTube channel alleging that News18 Tamil Nadu had been running an anti-Hindu campaign.
Subsequently, he also claimed through his Twitter handle that the management of the channel had accepted his complaint and an enquiry had found his complaint to be true.
Fake news
Mr. Maridhas is also accused of displaying an e-mail dated July 9 allegedly sent to him by Associate Executive Editor of the News18 Group, Vinay Sarawagi, that the management had accepted his allegations.
Complaining that the e-mail was forged and fabricated, Mr. Sarawagi had alleged that Mr. Maridhas was spreading fake news that harmed his and the channel’s reputation.
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/chennai-police-team-questions-youtuber-maridhas-in-madurai/article32250464.ece